2 Jan 2021 | CloudHost.One, Web Hosting
It’s that time of year again. No, no, not talking about new year resolutions and all that jazz. This is something much more important: website copyright notice updates!
One thing that annoys me much more than it should is a website showing something like © 2012 – yes, I saw that on a site just yesterday! There’s really no need for it when a simple snippet of code can ensure that the current year is always shown, though admittedly some platforms or themes don’t make it easy to insert it.
We’ll be checking all the sites on our Managed WordPress services today, just to be sure that they have all caught up and quickly updating those that haven’t (which will probably be all the ones we didn’t build).
It doesn’t take long, but it does at least make it look like you care about your online presence and that you’re still in business.
How to add a dynamic copyright notice
If you want to add the dynamic date then you’ll need something like this:
© 2019–<?php echo date(‘Y’); ?> Site Owner
If that’s gone way over your head, you’ll need someone like us 😉
21 Dec 2020 | CloudHost.One, Company News, Web Hosting
We’re really pleased to be able to welcome Harvest Consulting to the CloudHost.One™ family.
Harvest Clients will have been contacted already to let them know about the changes, and should have received some information from us at the same time, introducing the services and outlining out the migration will work.
We’ll be migrating Hosting accounts over to our servers between 20 December 2020 and 10 January 2021, and have tried to answer additional questions below. If you have any other questions though, please either leave a comment or contact us directly.
What’s happening?
Neale has been running Harvest Consulting for the past fifteen years, but his other business is taking up an increasing amount of time and he approached us in late-2019 to discuss some options. Harvest Consulting will be closing at the end of January 2021 but we both care about our customers and are now working together to ensure that the Hosting and Website Design aspects of the business can continue uninterrupted.
Harvest Consulting Clients will be contacted by Neale to determine if they want to transfer across to CloudHost.One™; and to get permission to pass on account information. We’ll then be in contact to arrange a date to undertake your data migration.
Why is my account moving to a new server?
Rather than taking over the existing server, we will be moving all websites and email accounts to our existing server infrastructure.
The server migration will bring several improvements to the Hosting Platform and Email services. We are happy to provide more information and explain this in more detail, but the key benefits are:
- Powerful UK-based server infrastructure, with scalable resources for optimal reliability
- Dedicated WordPress Hosting resources to improve speed and performance
- Mailboxes increased to 10GB as standard with mail sending limits also increased
- Built-in Malware scanning, Web Application Firewall and Spam Filtering on emails
Will this affect what I am paying?
Possibly, yes.
CloudHost.One™ Hosting Services are great value, but they are slightly more expensive than Harvest. Standard Hosting accounts are usually £9.50 per month or £95 annually. We also offer Managed WordPress services from £30 a month, but we’re not intending to push for any upsells, and will discuss individual business needs and use cases before completing the migrations to ensure you are getting the best value from us. We recognise that a lot of businesses are struggling right now so please do let us know if this slight increase in price is going to be difficult.
We will be honouring existing account renewal dates, so if your account usually renews in October, you won’t be charged until then. We may charge a nominal amount for the migration and initial security updates, but this would then be applied as a credit at renewal.
Who are CloudHost.One™ and S6 Connect Ltd?
CloudHost.One is currently a part of S6 Connect Ltd (but may be become a separate company) providing Hosting services directly and through Partners/Associates, and has previously acquired the customer base of Hosting providers in Stockport and South Essex where, despite the London address, our offices are.
Your website will be hosted on the CloudHost.One™ platform in the UK, and supported by S6 Connect Ltd. Your account manager will be Steve Westrop.
How do I get help and support?
The obvious change is that there will be a new email address and phone number going forward.
You can email enquiries to service@cloudhost.one or call local number 0161 806 0616.
Chances are you’ll end up with the occasional email directly from Steve occasionally – steve@s6connect.com – and if ever you have any urgent issues, option 0 on the main phone line connects to his mobile…. but don’t tell everyone!
Steve lived and worked in Stockport for a few years, and looks forward to working with and supporting you.
How will the migration work?
Once you have agreed to Neale sharing your details, we’ll determine a date to migrate your account. This will usually be done out of hours – so an evening, weekend, or over the Christmas holiday period – to minimise disruption. We don’t expect there to be any ‘down time’ but can’t guarantee it.
There is a small possibility that some email accounts will need to be move manually, in which case we will need to either know or reset your email password, but we’ll let you know if this is necessary.
Email will be re-rerouted as soon as the mail accounts are transferred, and web traffic once the site has been tested. SSL certificates will be applied on completion. There may be a short period where traffic goes to either or both servers, or an even shorter one where a security error shows (20 mins). This is why the migrations will be scheduled outside of the times that you site is expected to be busy.
We’ve already transferred and tested things on most of the Harvest accounts, and there were a few things that came up in doing so due to the different server setups. This means that when we do the official migrations, we’ll be able to get these small issues sorted as we go without disruption to you. We’ll keep in contact throughout and if there are any issues we’ll let you know.
Do I need to change my email settings?
We should be able migrate all your email accounts automatically, and will manually recreate any mail forwarding rules that you currently have. In some cases we may need to import your email manually into your new mailbox, in which case we will need to know the existing password, or reset it for you in order to transfer the mail. In previous tests, all mail accounts migrated over ok as part of the automated process.
One thing we can’t directly control is how emails appear on your devices. If there are any problems here (eg folders not syncing) the best option is to re-add the mail account. All you will need for this usually is the email address and password. If you are prompted for server details they are below. If this does happen and you need help, we can connect remotely to assist (Windows, Mac or Android)
Do I get an SSL (security) Certificate?
Absolutely, and it’s all included in the price too!
We won’t be able to apply the new SSL certificate until the migration is complete and the DNS (domain name) records are updated.
If you see any message about a security certificate issue, refresh the page or try again in 10 minutes. If it continues, let us know and we’ll double-check everything as a priority.
What about site updates?
We’re happy to continue making updates for you in a similar way to before. Just drop us an email or give us a call and we’ll get onto it.
If you find that you need updates and edits made to your site most months, our Managed WordPress maintenance plans may work out better value, but there is no obligation to upgrade to this at all. CloudHost Connect Pro starts at £30 a month and includes all Hosting charges, daily backups and advanced security, meaning that custom work is essentially just £40 an hour. You also receive access to a range of premium (paid) themes and plugins to add further functionality to the site, and will receive a report each month of any work done and the updates and enhancements made to the site.
If you are wanting to make any significant changes to your website, redesign it or freshen it up, then let us know: we may be able to spread some of the cost of this over the year to help keep it affordable.
Are there any limits for sending emails?
Our Webhosting service includes unlimited 10GB mailboxes, with a limit of 8,000 emails per sender address in a 24 hour period. The following limits also apply:
- No more than 10,000 recipients per day.
- No more than 2,000 unique recipients per day.
- A single email may not be sent to more than 100 individual addresses.
When a new mailbox has been set up, the sending is limited to 50 per day for 7 days. This is actually an abuse rule to prevent new mailboxes being set up and used immediately to send out high volumes of spam emails. To preserve the platforms reputation and protect mail being sent from being spoofed as spam by third parties this rule was put place to protect that status.
If you are looking to send a high volume of emails, such as a newsletter or regular updates to customers or supporters, our CloudHost.Email service may be more appropriate – contact us for more information.
A limit of 500 messages per day is imposed on all e-mail sent by our web servers, for example from forms on a website (unless they are connected to a mailbox for SMTP sending). E-mails sent by the web servers should be no larger than 5 MB in size. This applies to all messages sent via the PHP mail() function.
Autoresponders will only send once every 8 hours per sender
We take a zero tolerance stance against the sending of unsolicited email, bulk emailing and spam. Please be aware that recipients may incorrectly report emails in this way, and we may have to take action on those reports regardless of the intention.
Not all mail folders are showing
This is something we’ve seen occasionally in Outlook, if there was a different setting on the account before it moved to us.
To fix this, you’ll need to go into the Account Information, by first clicking on File in the Outlook ribbon:

Once you’re there, follow the steps below:
- Select the email account from the dropdown list;
- Click on Account Settings to see other options;
- Click on Account Name and Sync Settings,
another window will appear with the settings;
- Ensure the Root folder path field is empty (delete ‘inbox’)
- Click on Next and then Save changes.

Click the image to view full size
What are the Email Server Settings?
Most email applications will automatically detect the server settings once you enter the username (email address) and password. You should select IMAP account or ‘other’ depending on the application used.
If settings are not automatically applied you can use the following server settings:
• Incoming Mailserver: imap.cloudhost.one on port 993 with SSL (143 without)
• Outgoing Mailserver: smtp.cloudhost.one on port 465 with SSL (25 without)
Authentication is required for both, and you may need to re-enter your email address (username) and password to complete the server setup.
If your settings are autodetected, you may see the server names showing stackmail.com or your own domain instead of cloudhost.one – that’s ok.
You can also access your email at any time via our webmail service in your browser at https://webmail.cloudhost.one using your email and password.
The webmail interface also lets you set out-of -office replies or change password.
30 Dec 2019 | Business, Company News, Computer Repair, Web Hosting, WordPress
As we come to a new year, posts are starting to appear online touting a ‘new year, new me'. Resolutions, promises, goals, diets, and all that jazz.
Why should January 1st be any better than any other day to start being the best you?
That's not the point of this post though. It's a not a Victor Meldrew-esque rant, but a reminder of some of the other things you may want to ensure are in good shape for the start of a new decade (though I recognise this is also a topic for debate since, if the first year was 1, then the second decade starting in year 11…. follow the logic and the ‘new decade' starts next year. Procrastinators rejoice! You can be a lazy slob for another year and roll out the new you for the start of the decade in 12 months time – thank me later). I'm not really into the whole new year resolution thing (can you tell?) but maybe if I was, it should be to stay more focussed mid-post. Or even just mid-sentence, or mid- what were we talking about again?
Is your Computer or Laptop 2020-ready?
They get slower with age. Computers that is. As they accumulate all that data and knowledge that you have gleaned over time, things slow down a little. The little man inside your computer says “ah, he likes this website so I'll keep some information on here so he can find it easily next time”, which is all well and good but it happens every time. And then there's the software you no longer use and the bank statement that you downloaded ten times, and the photos you stored in three different places….
You take your car for a service and MOT every year, right? Maybe clear the loft out occasionally (or at least rearrange the Christmas decs when putting them back)? Why not your PC or Laptop? It needs a HealthCheck every so often, removing the rubbish so that there's more space (and hopefully speed) for the things that matter to you.
The other thing about Computers is that they do stop working one day. It's inevitable. The hard drive may stop working, or the memory may fail. Prevention is better than cure, so check our tips of 20 things to get your PC 2020-ready.
Is your Website or Web Presence 2020-ready?
More and more people are looking for a website to validate a businesses before using them. Our most popular web service in 2019 was single-page sites that give an opportunity to show what you do, without the cost of a full-blown website. Many of the businesses had no great desire to build a site, or just couldn't justify the cost at the early stages of the business, but these have been setup to grow with the business, and it's been exciting to see some of these businesses really take off and want to add in more pages and more information.
Several of the sites are automatically pulling in information from other sources to help keep them fresh. So as customers leave reviews on Google or Facebook, or the business owner adds pictures of their latest work on Facebook, that information is automatically added to their site.
We've made some massive improvements to our hosting over the last couple of months: it's ready to grow with your business throughout 2020, and we'd love to be part of your online journey. You can find out about the updates here.
It's not all about websites though. Making sure your business, charity or community group has a strong online presence is increasingly important. There are lots of simple things you can do to help ensure that you can be easily found online. Check out our top 20 tips for a 2020-ready online presence, or schedule a call to discuss options.
Is your Networking 2020-ready?
Do you attend any networking events? Networking can massively help your business, and could be just what you need to make 2020 even more successful. There are lots of different types of networking events out there, and some may suit you more than others. That's OK. We're all different, and all like to do things differently.
This February it will be three years since the Lakeside Lunch networking group launched. I think I've missed three of the fortnightly events in that time, but have made friends, found customers and found other local businesses that I can rely upon. I now help run three different networking events locally (Lakeside, Billericay and Ongar) as part of the UK's only joined-up networking organisation…. which itself celebrates 14 years in February.
There's no 20 tips for 2020 this time. Instead, look out for a new networking tip every fortnight, or get in touch and we'll help you find some local opportunities to talk about your business and grow your network.
29 Dec 2019 | Business, Web Hosting, WordPress
Are you ready to take your business to the next level in 2020 with a strong website or web-presence?
Here's our top 20 tips to do just that, but there are plenty more, so get in contact if you need any help!
- Backup, backup, backup! If you have a website, keep a backup of the files and any associated database.
- Run our Website Audit Report to see if there are things you could do to improve your site – it's free!
- Don't ‘we' all over your site (or profiles) – no one cares about you, so focus on the benefits for them.
- Be consistent – Name, Address and Phone number (NAP) should be the same on every platform you use.
- Ensure your site is using an SSL certificate, and that all links use https:// – this is free with most hosts.
- Check what you are getting/paying your provider. We often rescue people from over-priced bad service.
- If you are using a CMS-powered site (eg WordPress) ensure all code, themes and plugins are updated.
- Deactivate and/or remove any plugins or themes you are no longer using – keep it all clean and simple.
- Update your site's copyright notice if you have one – ©2017 suggests you may no longer be in business!
- If you are using third-party integrations (eg Facebook, Maps) or contact forms, check they are working.
- Ensure your site visitors can contact you easily from any point on your website. Don't hide this away.
- Check that any Domain Names are owned and registered to you or your business, not host or designer.
- Unlucky for some – passwords (again)! Make sure they are secure and consider 2-factor authentication.
- Check who else has access to your website admin area or any online profiles. Do they still need access?
- Is your business on Google Maps? Have you claimed it on Google My Business? Refer back to tip 4 🙂
- Add photos and ‘posts' to your Google My Business listing regularly – show Google that you still exist.
- Check other online directories, especially Bing Places (Microsoft) and Yelp (used by Amazon's Alexa).
- Keep a list of the directories/services you are on and check them regularly. Respond to any reviews.
- Show/link your business name on your Facebook profile – make it easy for us to know what you do.
- Time to spare? Google* yourself or your business and see what's there! (*other searches available)
Get your FREE Website Audit Report now!
enter your website URL, name & email address below
27 Dec 2019 | Web Hosting, WordPress
Over the past couple of months, we have been moving web hosting and email to new servers. This is now complete, and all hosting clients are now able to benefit from this. All hosting accounts now carry the CloudHost.One™ branding, but are still supported directly by S6 Connect.
Previously sites were hosted on one of two servers – each with some limitations and quirks of their own if we're honest. All sites are now hosted on the 20i network, which offers several benefits and improvements including:
- Fast UK-based SSD hosting
- Data stored and replicated on multiple servers
- Dynamic load balancing
- On-demand autoscaling
- Linux, WordPress or Windows hosting
- 10GB Mailboxes as standard
- Free DNS-based SSL certificates
- Unlimited Bandwidth
- Additional WordPress management tools
- New Hosting Control Panel
- Native WordPress caching service
- IPv6 and HTTP/2 support
We have also replaced the billing platform and reduced the volume of emails sent at renewal.
The billing and hosting control panels can both be accessed at https://control.cloudhost.one
Webmail has also been improved and can be accessed via webmail.cloudhost.one
WordPress-optimised hosting is £9.50 a month for users who are happy to mostly self-manage their site, but our Basic ManagedWP service at £30 a month is the most popular and includes regular updates, backups and access to additional themes and plugins. Other plans and options are available to suit your needs and budget.
All accounts are now setup on the new platform and login details have been sent to all users. If you have not received this, or have any questions you can email support@s6connect.com or call 033 3340 3380, ext. 201 – our phone systems have also been updated.
We are currently trialling some additional services to reduce comment and form submission ‘spam' on WordPress sites, and to further enhance site security. If you are interested in trying this, please let us know: we hope to be able to offer this to all accounts shortly.
4 Nov 2019 | Web Hosting
S6 Connect's web hosting infrastructure is having a major upgrade!
Using multiple servers and increased redundancy means that sites should always be available. If one server is struggling for any reason, another will automatically take over. If a site has a surge of traffic, additional resources are deployed to handle the increase.
Several smaller sites have already been transitioned, with the rest to be transferred over the coming week. Websites and emails will be transferred before DNS records are updated, meaning there will be no downtime. In simple terms, traffic will go to the old server until the new one is ready to receive it. Some customers may need to make manual changes to their Domain Name record if it is controlled externally, and SSL certificates may show an error in some situations, but for 95% of customers there will be no noticeable impact other than the resulting improvements in performance and convenience.
Some system URLs will be changing, and the billing platform will also be replaced (with one that sends far fewer reminder emails).
Updated Links
Webhosting Control Panel: https://cp.cloudhost.one
Webmail (Roundcube): https://webmail.cloudhost.one
Billing & Management will be available via Control Panel
Email Access
Emails will all be transferred and should continue to work without interruption. However, if you have simply entered your domain name as the mailserver, without a mail/imap/smtp prefix you may encounter an error message.
Incoming mailserver: imap.yourdomain.com or imap.cloudhost.one
Outgoing mailserver: smtp.yourdomain.com or smtp. cloudhost.one
Alternatively, you can continue to use simply mail.yourdomain.com
Webmail access at webmail.cloudhost.one with a cleaner interface
DNS Updates
If your Domain Name is registered and controlled by a third-party (eg 123-reg, GoDaddy, 1&1 Ionos) you should update the Nameservers to the following:
- ns1.stackdns.com
- ns2.stackdns.com
- ns3.stackdns.com
- ns4.stackdns.com
WordPress platform
We now have a dedicated WordPress hosting environment which has additional security and caching in place to improve performance and reliability. Provided your WordPress files are located in the root directory (not a wordpress subdirectory) and there is only a single database on the account, your site will be placed on this platform and optimized. WordPress hosting also provides quick and simple access to WordPress tools in the Control Panel.
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